Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Santa Fe Chicken

Santa Fe chicken is an easy and flavorful TexMex inspired recipe that can be made in your slow cooker or Instant Pot.

If you google ‘santa fe chicken’ a lot of recipes come up. It’s a popular recipe because it’s easy and really good. There are a lot of variations out there, this one is mine. This is one of the first slow cooker recipes I uploaded to my Instagram page back in September 2015. I cannot believe it’s been over 3 years and I’m just adding to the blog now. Now that it’s back on my radar, this recipe will definitely be in regular rotation in my household again.

MY LATEST VIDEOS

You can use chicken breasts or thighs but I personally think thighs work better. Especially if you’re not going to be home to turn your slow cooker off. Chicken breast in general you can’t leave on the warm setting because they will continue to cook and dry out.

before

If you don’t have crushed tomatoes, use diced tomatoes. No, I did not use any broth. As you can see from the pic, you don’t need any, there will be plenty of liquid. If you don’t want Santa Fe chicken spicy, make sure you remove the seeds from the jalapeno or omit it all together.

after

When the chicken is done cooking, I recommend you take it out shred it, and place it back in the slow cooker or Instant Pot until it’s ready to serve. You don’t have to do this though, you can serve the chicken in whole pieces.

Instructions

Slow Cooker

Add all ingredients to the slow cooker. Stir to mix well.

Cook HIGH 3-4, LOW 6-8.

Garnish with cilantro.

Instant Pot

Set Instant Pot to the high saute setting. Heat oil.

Add bell pepper and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in crushed tomatoes, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Stir in all remaining ingredients, close and seal vent.

Select manual setting and set time for 9 minutes. Quick-release pressure when cook time is completed.

Garnish with cilantro.

Serve this over rice (whether it be cauliflower rice, white rice, or brown rice), in a tortilla, over greens for a salad,etc. Sky is the limit with this recipe. I have even used this for enchilada filling.